Made in garage sale: $23.25

Junk disposed of : a small amount, all at ridiculously low prices

Hours of preparation with the kids: Priceless

Yes, you read it right, we made a grand total of $23.25. It doesn’t sound like much, but the following points should be noted: 

a) We didn’t actually set up until 8am on Saturday

b) People started arriving before we even put any signs up, and The Daddy was still asleep, so we were limited to a sign out front to catch traffic through the subdivision. 

c) We mostly only had toys on offer

d) We had so little to sell that we closed up before 9am, after a stream of people came by commenting “is this it?” .

But you know, it was worth it for all the preparation, which used up several otherwise-idle hours over the course of the week. There were toys to sort (and rediscover and play with) and price labels to place, and on Friday afternoon The T-Bot helped me count the float. There was fun involved for everyone, even for The Wictor, who placed himself in charge of the labels. By Friday evening the whole downstairs was brighter for fluorescent stickers (although I drew a line at the leather chairs) and we were all walking around covered in them too. 

The T-Bot made an excellent salesperson, if a little pushy, and was, I think, enriched by the experience. He has been begging for a “store” for months and finally got to see what it was all about. But after an hour we were all ready to come in out of the heat. Besides, we needed to get to Target, money clutched in hot little hands. Barricade and pretty shoes were waiting.